“Our lives and our worlds are finite, never fully filled, never fully empty, so we always have opportunities for gratitude for the half full or ingratitude, resentment and bitterness at the half empty and envy those whose glass is fuller.” Peter Kreft, Back to Virtue
I make this observation from my experience in counseling and in observation of the general public: the most healthy people I’ve met are those whose “default” is a grateful spirit. The most unhealthy persons have been those whose default is negative, critical, ungrateful and whiney. “The world owes me,” kind of attitude.
This is another good example of how if we follow Biblica guidelines, we’ll be sucessful. Joshua 1:8 tells us, 8 Study this Book of Instruction (the Bible) continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
Did you catch the “In” and “For” all circumstances. For followers of Jesus Christ the underlying life premise is “God loves me and wants the best for me. Even this most trying time I’m experiencing, God has a plan to build me into the man He wants (and I want it too).
Not necessarilyl thankful for the event (i.e. being abused sexually), but grateful for how God can even use that hard time to help in the transformation process described many places in Scripture, the most dynamic “being conformed to the image of Christ.”
A prayer could go something like,
Father, I would have preferred not going through that traumatic situation, but I trust You. You allowed it and I believe you will use it in my life, for my good, the good of others and lto Your glory.
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